Moving a Sewing Room

After 3 and a half years of “camping out” in a tiny little rental house, my husband and I are moving into larger digs. There will be one well-lit room dedicated to quilting. Hurray! I’ve camped and de-camped sewing rooms before, but there’s always some good advice out there, so I’m asking: Do you have any tips as I begin the packing/unpacking journey? I will have a room blueprint of measurements and door and window locations to work with. Thanks in advance for your help!

Oh! The memories, twice in the past 5 yrs. I have tons of fabric stored in plastic tubs. I wrapped plastic wrap around each one and then put the moving tape over the palstic wrap. No sticky residue. Just a snip and they were placed. The fabric in drawers were boxed & labeled by color. Easy out and back in. Don’t be tempted to wrap breakables in your fabric. Then it’s just all over the place. I really tried to keep what was organized together in the same moving box. Clean on the way into the box if you have… Read more »

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7 years ago

Andi

Good ideas, Pat. I especially like pack in clean so unpacking is easier, but moving out always seems to go in a hurry! Thanks!

Make sure that what you REALLY need is packed together…project & equipment. Love the idea of cleaning as you pack. I found in moving that if I’m getting tired of packing, I’ll discard. So, pack what you really need and really want FIRST! Good luck and have fun! A bigger area – I’m jealous!

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7 years ago

Barbara

I have all rooms graphed to scale including windows, outlet placements, etc. plus cutouts of furniture graphed in same scale with a heavy line outlining each piece. Then I play paperdolls and place the furniture in the room so that I know which piece must move first and where it will land. That way we only do the heavy lifting once. It’s fun to see the various configurations and easier to set up the room for optimal efficiency. Hubby and I remodeled the restaurant we once owned this way as well as the kitchen, baths, and laundry room addition in… Read more »

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7 years ago

Sue Monsey

Be very careful about using trash bags!!!! You don’t want any of that precious quilting stuff to go into the garbage!

I really love the idea of orgnizing on the way out so it is all ready for the placement at the new house. But … that being said we all know how moving goes and the chaos that goes with it.

As much as I would love to have a huge sewing room to hold my gamill and all the other quilting stuff I have accumulated, I would hate to do the moving!

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7 years ago

Cynthia Daugherty

I used the vaccum storage bags, the jumbo size. Pack your fabric, magazines, patterns, etc. and shrink it down with the vaccum. When I go on shopping binges, I fold it nicely in the bags. These are great for long-term storage as well.

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7 years ago

Andi

All very good suggestions, and I agree about being careful when using trash bags; if they are clearly marked it’s less risky that they’ll be mistaken for garbage.

Now…what do you do with the quilting magazines that accumulate over time? Mine each have colored sticky notes that indicate why I marked a given page, but if I can’t find the key to those sticky notes…

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7 years ago

Amy Beth

If it’s a large area, you might want to color-code the boxes and things you pack with where they should be set down. (Blue dots go by the window, yellow dots along the wall to the right of that…)

If you won’t be able to unpack everything in a day, pack one clearly marked box of essentials for things you will need right away.